1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a device manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, a patterning device may be used to generate a desired circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist).
In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively exposed. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion in one go, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through the projection beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction.
A known method of imparting a pattern onto a substrate includes applying a stamp vertically onto a substrate covered in resist, illuminating the stamp to set exposed resist or light sensitive material and vertically lifting the stamp off the substrate. Lithographic techniques are often used for such nanometer scale printing on substrates for flat panel displays and the like.